With the fashion week lined up, designers are expected to stay put at their working tables. But Delhi-based designer Rana Gill willingly agreed to take time off her sketchboard to give a lesson or two to workaholics at the gym.She arrives in blue jeans with a matching blue-grey, high-neck sweater and a pair of swanky glares, looking nothing like a gym instructor. While we are still making the comparison, she quickly changes into a skin-tight maroon tracksuit that sets off her well-toned body.At Ozone Fitness and Spa in Gurgaon, Gill teams up with model and business entrepreneur Nasreen Rahman for almost an hour-long workout. After giving a few tips to 28-year-old Rahman at the abs crunch, she guides her at some cross-section exercises.In a city where women gym instructors are a rarity unless you have a personal trainer, Gill looks quite a pro. So much so that she has almost everyone staring as she corrects Rahman’s moves or bends down to tie her trainee’s shoe laces. “Don’t worry, I know all this stuff,” Gill charmingly assures her. Says Rahman: “I’ve been a regular at gyms for over five years now but it’s the first time I am working out with a woman instructor. It’s good fun.” Personally, though, Gill says she prefers to stay out of the four walls of the gym. Her favourite fitness activity is swimming. “Except between December and March, when the mercury dips, I swim four days a week for over an hour each day,” she says. The duo switch over to an upright bike, for some cardio exercises and Gill sets the timer and toughness levels for Rahman. “Even though I’m a swimmer, I keep a check on all new equipment that are brought in at gyms. That’s how I know how to use them,” she says proudly.
